


with every single beat of my heart

by CloudCover (RainyForecast)



Series: Hockey RPF Tumblr Prompts [22]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 5 Headcanons Prompt, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying gifts, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 15:31:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14108451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainyForecast/pseuds/CloudCover
Summary: Sidney is late making his Soulgift.Anonymous asked:Soulbond AU for Sid and G please?





	with every single beat of my heart

1\. Sidney is late making his Soulgift. He’s busy with hockey, and all the talk and speculating and gossip and  _feelings_  embarrass him. His classmates and his teammates are obsessed. Who’s made one already, what it looks like, how they just  _knew_  they felt something when they saw so-and-so’s, et cetera. It’s exhausting. Sid just wants to play hockey. Sure, he doesn’t want to be  _alone_  his entire life, but. Well. He’s always been accused of being a little one-track-minded. 

 

2\. His mother finally badgers him into making his Soulgift when he’s eighteen and is drafted by the Penguins. He’s reluctant. He knows the media is going to be all over it. Reporters are going to ask about it. Fans are going to try to get pictures of it. Deep, deep down though, below the fear and the nerves, he does like the idea of carrying around a promise that there’s someone out there, somewhere. Waiting to love him. 

 

3\. The shop is dizzying beyond belief. Shelves and trays and tables and hanging racks, all glittering and winking in the light. Every conceivable material. Precious metals, wood, glass, stone, leather, and more. Each in a hundred different colors and forms. His hands shake. What if he does it wrong? “Touch things, “ the kind shop owner tells him. “Take your time.” He walks through the narrow aisles, and runs his hands through bins of beads, containers of gemstones, racks of chains and pins and earring backs. He tries to imagine the formless person he’s meant to be with, but they’re a shadowy blank. 

He realizes he’s stopped while trying to think, and that he’s running the links of a gold chain through his fingers. It’s heavier than anything he’d ever like to wear, but the metal feels cool and calming between his fingers. He picks it up, considers it. It doesn’t look nice enough for a soulmate, on its own. Too plain. 

The figure in his mind is still unclear but he looks at the weight of the chain and somehow can’t imagine it around the neck of a girl. A man, then. He keeps walking. He ends up in a corner of the shop filled with pendents for necklaces. Thousands of them. He starts to feel panic rise again and to quell it he plunges his hand into a bin and just grabs blindly. There are two pendents in his hand when he opens it. A cross with funny rounded edges and an oval medallion with a enamel picture of a saint. They’re both gold, and heavy, with intricate design work. He looks at them, then at the chain. And it feels…finished. 

He brings it to the shopkeeper who smiles at him, and then peers at the pendents. “Hmm,” she says. “A cross of St. Olga. And a Mother of God medallion. Russian Orthodox, both of those.”  _Russian_ , Sid thinks. 

 

4\. He gets a little [teasing about the necklace.](https://dawn-phoenix.tumblr.com/post/120068883495/genos-necklaces-a-psa) It amuses his new teammates because it’s so unlike his usual subdued style. It’s heavy and ostentatious, but Sid’s come to find it’s weight comforting, after a time. He brings it out to touch to his lips during national anthems, careful to cup it in his hand so the camera’s don’t catch it. 

And of course, when they get the news that Evgeni Malkin has disappeared from a Finnish airport and is finally on his way to them, he can’t help but wonder. 

 

5\. When Sid hears the noise of guests arriving downstairs at Mario’s, his hands tremble on the necklace and he almost pulls out out from under his shirt and walks downstairs like that. For all to see. But he stops himself. 

He can see them when he reaches the first landing of the stairs. Sergei Gonchar, Mario and Nathalie. And Evgeni Malkin. Tall, with a tired slump to his wide shoulders. Sid goes down, smiles at all of the introductions, and goes to shake Evgeni’s hand. Evgeni is staring at him. He has smudged circles under his dark brown eyes and he grips Sid’s hand far harder than what’s normal for a “so-nice-to-meet-you” handshake. Sid blinks up at him. “Sidney Crosby,” Evgeni says, and swallows, like he’s nervous. He doesn’t let go of Sid’s hand as he reaches his free one to his neck and pulls something out from beneath his shirt. 

A necklace, with a thin gold chain, and [a small pendent of the number 87.](http://crosbye.tumblr.com/post/79507911440/sid-his-necklace) Sid’s jersey number. 

Sid feels a rushing in his ears. He lets go of Evgeni’s hand to pull the necklace he’s wearing out as well. Evgeni’s eyes widen as he takes in the flash of the metal, the Russian cross and medallion. The room has gone quiet around them. Sid pulls his Soulgift off over his head and holds it out. Evgeni bends his neck, and lets Sidney reach up to put it on him. Then he undoes the clasp of the thin gold chain and fastens it around Sidney’s neck, running a finger around it so the pendant hangs perfectly. His hands brush Sid’s jaw, and the touch feels electric. Sid can’t take it and throws his arms around him, pulling him close. His soulmate.  _His_. He can  _feel_  how right it is. 

“Uh,” he manages to say after letting Evgeni go and glancing around to see the smiles and discreet eye-dabbing the adults around them are doing. “Welcome, uh, to Pittsburgh.” Everyone laughs, and Evgeni’s tired eyes sparkle at him.

“Good to be here,” Evgeni says. “With you.” 

With Sid. For the rest of their lives. 

**Author's Note:**

> Un beta'd. 
> 
> title is from "I Was Born To Love You," by Freddie Mercury 
> 
> You can find me as [creaturesofnarrative ](http://creaturesofnarrative.tumblr.com/) (main) and [knifeshoeoreofight](http://knifeshoeoreofight.tumblr.com/) (hockey blog, where I'm most active) on Tumblr, and as @RainyForecast on Twitter. Come say hi


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